THE STONE STATUES 01 



LAGUA 



By S. k; LOTHROP 



Reprinted from The American Anthropologist, Vol. 23, No. 3, July-September, 

1921. 






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[Reprinted from the American Anthroiologist, Vol. 23, No. 3, July- Sept., 1921.] 



>s THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 

By S. K. LOTHROP 

A RCHAEOLOGISTS have known for many years that large 

Jr\ stone statues are found in the region of the great lakes of 

Nicaragua. However, as yet no serious study of the 

problems raised by these figures has been made, and I therefore 

propose to discuss a few points in connection with them. 

In height the statues range from three to twelve feet, and the 
subject is invariably a human being, usually male, and often shown 
in conjunction with an animal figure. The types of particular in- 
terest are as follows : 

I. A human figure, to the back and shoulders of which clings 

an animal (fig. 67, d). 
II. A human figure bearing on its head the head of an animal 
(fig. 67, b). 
III. A human figure shown in conjunction with an animal or 
an animal head, within the jaws of which appears the 
human head (fig. 67, c). Sometimes the animal head 
of this type is partially conventionalized (fig. 67, a). 

These three types form a unit series in which certain changes 
take place. Thus, starting with a complete animal figure carried 
on the back of the man, we end up with the human head within 
the animal jaws. This series is obviously connected with a con- 
ception common among the ancient Mexicans and Maya, but it 
is distinguished from the Mexican and Mayan treatment in that the 
Nicaraguan body is always human, even when the head is enclosed 
in animal jaws, while the Mexican and Mayan body is character- 
istically an animal, within the jaws of which appears a human head. 

In addition to the above types there are: 

IV. A human figure seated on the top of a tall column. 

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AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 23, 1921 







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THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 



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V. A human figure with a large gorget held in the hand or 

suspended from the neck: 
VI. A human figure with the arms folded across the chest. 
VII. Stone columns with pictographs. 

In distribution these statues come into direct contact with the 
Maya area. Dr. Gordon discovered in the Uloa Valley a rather 
crude sculpture (figure 68, a) which is comparable to a figure dis- 
covered by Squier on Zapatero Island in Lake Nicaragua (fig. 68, b). 




Fig. 68. — ^A stone statue (a) from the Uloa Valley Honduras, compared 
with a figure (b) found on Zapatero Island, Nicaragua. 

Seler found near Comitan, a town in southwestern Mexico, a statue 
(fig. 69, a) stylistically very close to one of the Nicaraguan types 
(fig. 69, b and c). This form, the fourth of our classificatory system, 
represents a man seated on the top of a tall column. .The capital 
of this column is round while the shaft is usually square. 

A third pair of statues of greater significance is seen in figure 70. 
The standing figure (a) was found on Zapatero Island and is en- 



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AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 23, 1921 



tirely typical of that region. A seated figure (b) was found by the 
writer at La Florida, a town some sixty miles from the great Maya 
city of Copan and itself surrounded by ruins of Maya type. The 
La Florida sculpture bears on its back a small animal figure, which, 
we have seen, is a Nicaraguan feature and is not characteristic of 
Mayan art. 

While the La Florida figure belongs in the same group with 
what we have called the Nicaraguan figures, it also is stylistically 




Fig. 6g. — A stone statue from southwestern Mexico (a) compared with 
statues of Nicaraguan type (b, c). 

affiliated with a group of 'crude sculptures found principally in the 
highlands of Guatemala (fig. 70, c), which are probably a local 
development of the Nicaraguan type. The method of representing 
the hands and arms as well as their position on the body indicate 
stylistic affiliation, and, furthermore, similar subjects, among which 
should be mentioned crude figures with a plate or disk held on the 
belly, are represented all the way from Guatemala to Costa Rica. 
This, perhaps, is the germ of the idea which later developed into 
the reclining human figure type commonly called the Chac Mool, 



LOTHROp] THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 



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3l6 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 23, 1921 

now proved to have been evolved as early as the Maya Great 
Period (sixth century A.D.) by its discovery by Prof. M. H. Saville 
at the ruins of Quirigua. 

Two statues of the Guatemalan sub-type (fig. 70, d and e) have 
been found at the ruins of Copan, where they had been built into 
the foundations of stelae 5 and 4 which are dated 9.14.0.0.0 and 
9. 17. 12. 13.0 in the Mayan system or 452 and 523 A.D. From this 
we may safely infer that these two monuments, and indeed the 
whole group under discussion, are comparatively early, and that 
their makers occupied the Copan region before the arrival of the 
Maya. 

The small jade figure known as the Tuxtla statuette (fig. 71, a) 
bears the date corresponding to 96 B.C. Mr. S. G. Morley, on the 
evidence of the glyphs themselves, believes that this date is contem- 
porary. It is therefore the earliest date yet known on the American 
continent which is not of obviously legendary character. It has 
been recognized that the Tuxtla statuette did not accord stylistically 
with other Mayan remains of any period whatsoever. However, it 
can be connected with two large stone figures from the Nicaraguan 
area (fig. 71, b and c) and with certain jade pendants from the 
nearby peninsula of Nicoya. The distinguishing characteristic 
of the Tuxtla statuette is the appendage which covers the mouth, 
which may be a beard but more probably represents the bill of a 
bird." The two Nicaraguan statues here represented are marked 
by the presence of objects on the lower part of the face which I 
feel confident are intended to represent the bill of a bird, for when 
we examine the jade pendants from Nicoya (fig. 72) we find forms 
almost identical with those of the statues, the evolution of which 
into bird types can be definitely traced. It is also of interest to 
note that in the Nicoya jades we can trace the transformation of 
this bird type into forms which are well known in South America 
in the early Peruvian cultures. 

The question who made these statues now arises. On artistic 
grounds our search can at once be limited to three peoples, the 
Maya, Nahua, and Chorotega, and I believe that they may be 
definitely ascribed to the Chorotega for the following reasons: 



LOTHROP] 



THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 



317 



I. The majority of the statues are in territory not known to 
have been occupied by anybody but Chorotega, while all the statues 
occur within the extreme limits of this stock, i.e. between the State 
of Chiapas in Mexico and northwestern Costa Rica. 




Fig. 71. — The Tuxtla statuette (a) compared with two large stone figures 
from the Nicaraguan area (b, c). 

II. We may eliminate the Maya, because it is certain that they 
never came to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. From archaeological 
remains it seems that Maya art once dominated Salvador, and 
certain Mayan motives appear on Costa Rican and Nicaraguan 
pottery, but, in the words of Dr. Spinden, these designs are "carried 
so far from the original that only an expert can see the connections." 

III. The Nahua came to Nicaragua at a comparatively late 
period — probably in the early part of the fifteenth century — and 
surely never occupied more territory than at the time of the con- 
quest. They certainly did not settle near La Florida and in the 
Uloa Valley, so they could not well have been the makers of the 
statues. 

IV. While the statues are not Maya or Mexican in style, yet 
they are related to ceramic and jade remains from Nicaragua and 
Costa Rica which are universally ascribed to the Chorotega. 



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AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 



[n. s., 23, 1921 



A word must now be said about the Chorotega. At the time 
of the Spanish conquest they were divided into four geographical 
groups consisting of: (i) the Chiapanecs in Chiapas, or southwestern 
Mexico, (2) the Choluteca in the Honduranean Department of 
Choluteca, (3) the Mangue in the region between Leon, Managua, 
and the Pacific in Nicaragua, and (4) the Orotiiians in north- 
western Costa Rica. Their language bears relationship to that of 
no other people, although at one time Brinton thought that it 
might be a branch of the Aymara tongue of Peru. The Chiapanec 
possessed a legend that they had come from Nicaragua, while all 
the Spanish historians of Nicaragua agree that the Chorotega were 
the "ancient and indigenous" inhabitants of that land. 







Fig. 72. — Jade pendants from Nicoya. 

With this information before us, we are now prepared to ad- 
vance certain hypotheses as to the movements of population in 
Middle America: 

I. The Chorotega, who on archaeological grounds show relation- 
ship with South America, probably moved from that continent 
into Central America in very early times. Archaeological remains 
show that they occupied, at one time or another, the highlands of 
Chiapas and Guatemala, the eastern and northern portions of 
Honduras, the central and western parts of Nicaragua, and the 
northwestern corner of Costa Rica. 

II. The Maya, who probably came originally from the district 
to the south of Vera Cruz, in the centuries immediately preceding 
the Christian era occupied the region of the Peten in northern 



LOTHROP] THE STONE STATUES OF NICARAGUA 3 19 

Guatemala. At the beginning of the first century A.D. they ex- 
panded to the southeast, and settled in the Copan-Quirigua-Uloa 
Valley region, driving out the previous inhabitants, who were 
Chorotega. 

III. In the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. the Maya civiliza- 
tion was uprooted, probably through the failure of agriculture, 
and the population moved into Yucatan and the highlands of 
Guatemala. In the latter region they again encountered and drove 
out Chorotegan tribes, of which the remnants today are the Chi- 
apanecs and Mazatecs. 

IV. Various tribes of which ■ we have not spoken, the Lenca, 
Xicaque, Ulva, etc., are almost certainly of South American origin 
and perhaps speak a South American language. They appear to 
have moved northward in the wake of the Chorotega, whom they 
drove out of Honduras and central Nicaragua. 

V. A third migratory wave from South America consisted of 
such Chibchan tribes as the Corobici, Guetar, and Talamanca. At 
the time of the Spanish conquest the Corobici and Guetar had come 
into contact with the Chorotega of Costa Rica, and were rapidly 
exterminating them. 

VI. Nahua tribes started to work down the west coast of Central 
America in comparatively early times, yet no group of this people 
passed the Lempa River in Salvador until the beginning of the 
fifteenth century. At that time, however, the Nicarao entered 
Nicaragua and displaced the Chorotegan tribes occupying the 
Isthmus of Rivas, the narrow strip of land which separates the 
Lake of Nicaragua from the Pacific. 

The hypotheses which have been advanced above rest on a 
complex of facts, for which as yet no other explanation has been 
offered. The outstanding features to which attention is invited 
are: (i) that stone figures of several distinct types distributed 
from southern Mexico to Costa Rica apparently form a unified 
group; (2) that this group, in part at least, is very early, as is shown 
by the presence of these statues under the Copan altars and by 
their artistic connection with the Tuxtla Statuette; and (3) that 
one and only one race, the Chorotega, has ever occupied the full 
and exact limits of the region wherein these statues occur. 

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